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Laugh track
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A laugh track, laughter soundtrack, laughter track, LFN (laughter from nowhere), canned laughter or a laughing audience is a separate soundtrack invented by Charles Douglass, with the artificial sound of audience laughter, made to be inserted into TV comedy shows and sitcoms. The first television show to incorporate a laugh track was the American sitcom The Hank McCune Show in 1950.
re television, audiences often experienced comedy, whether performed live on stage, on radio, or in a movie, in the presence of other audience members.
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Encyclopedia
A laugh track, laughter soundtrack, laughter track, LFN (laughter from nowhere), canned laughter or a laughing audience is a separate soundtrack invented by Charles Douglass, with the artificial sound of audience laughter, made to be inserted into TV comedy shows and sitcoms. The first television show to incorporate a laugh track was the American sitcom The Hank McCune Show in 1950.
History
Before television, audiences often experienced comedy, whether performed live on stage, on radio, or in a movie, in the presence of other audience members. Television producers attempted to recreate this atmosphere in its early days by introducing the sound of laughter or other crowd reactions into the soundtrack of television programs. However, live audiences could not be counted on to laugh at the correct moment. Other times, the audiences could laugh too long or too loud, sounding unnatural and forced. CBS sound engineer Charles Douglass noticed these, as he put it, "God-awful" responses, and took it upon himself to remedy the situation. If a joke did not get the desired chuckle, Douglass inserted additional laughter. If the live audience chuckled for too long, Douglass gradually muted the guffaws. This editing technique became known as sweetening, in which pre-recorded laughter is used to augment the response of the real studio audience if they did not react as strongly as desired. Douglass eventually spent countless hours extracting laughter, applause, and other reactions from live soundtracks he had recorded (mainly from the dialogue-less The Red Skelton Show), Douglass then placed his recorded guffaws into a huge tape machine, dubbed the "laff box."
At first, the laugh track was used on live shows like The Jack Benny Program and I Love Lucy; as a result, its invention essentially went by unnoticed. By the end of the 1950s, live comedy transitioned from film to videotape, which allowed for editing during post-production. However, by editing a prerecorded live show, bumps and gaps were present in the soundtrack. Douglass was again called upon to "bridge or fill" these gaps. Eventually, both performers and producers began to get greedy when they realized the power behind these prerecorded chuckles. Comedian Milton Berle, while witnessing a post-production editing session, once said, "as long as we are here, this joke didn't get all that we wanted." After Douglass inserted a guffaw after a failed joke, Berle reportedly commented, "See? I told you it was funny."
By the early 1960s, it became clear that live television became cost prohibitive, and Douglass was brought in to simulate an entire audience. Producers began to realize how much simpler it was to film a show without a live audience. The consensus was that live audiences were tense, nervous and rarely laughed on cue. Filming in a studio had its limitations as well, as half the audience could hardly see or hear the show from where they were sitting. After a live show was filmed, producers were faced with the ominous task of removing all overdone or annoying live audience reaction. Douglass would then be recruited during post-production to "desweeten" the episode in question. Eventually, more genuine chuckles were removed and replaced with chuckles from the laugh track, making live shows nearly obsolete. Douglass went from enhancing a soundtrack to literally reorchestrating audience reactions.
Shows like Bewitched, The Munsters and The Beverly Hillbillies are virtually showcases of Douglass' editing skill; the more outlandish the show, the more invasive the laugh track was. Conversely, low-key shows, like The Andy Griffith Show and My Three Sons, resulted in the laugh track chuckling barely above a whimper. Nearly every sitcom or variety show had canned laughter dubbed onto their soundtrack. Even the few remaining live sitcoms, like The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Lucy Show, were sweetened with canned laughter.
Originally, filmed shows that were produced without the benefit of a live audience were difficult for Douglass because there was not enough space to insert a decent amount of laughter. Eventually, writers were conscious of the laugh track, and began writing and timing scripts around it. Directors began leaving spaces for audience reactions so that Douglass could edit with greater ease (watching an episode of M*A*S*H on DVD without the laugh track, for instance, accentuates the awkward pause left for audience response).
Charley Douglass' infamous invention was properly tested in 1965 when producers were trying to launch Hogan's Heroes. CBS screened two versions of the same episode to measure audience reactions; one contained the laugh track, the other was silent. As Hogan's Heroes required cerebral viewing, the audience watching the laugh-track-less version were left confused, and the episode failing miserably. The version with the canned laughter succeeded and CBS gave the show a green light. After this incident, no sitcom went on the air without a touch-up from Charley Douglass' laff box.
Prime time live-action shows were not the only genre to employ a laugh track, as the canned chuckles were eventually used in some animated television series that would not employ a live audience. The Flintstones and The Jetsons originally aired with laugh tracks, but later aired with the laugh track removed.
Eventually, the laugh track entered the world of Saturday morning cartoons as well. Cartoons that at least originally had laugh tracks include The Pink Panther Show, Scooby-Doo, Josie and the Pussycats, The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, and the very first episodes of Rocky and His Friends.
Charley Douglass and the mysterious "laff box"
From the late 1950s to the early 1970s, Douglass had a monopoly on the expensive and painstaking "laff" business. As one critic put it, the Douglass family were "the only laugh game in town." By 1960, nearly every prime time show in America was "sweetend' by Douglass' laff box.
The Douglass family themselves were quite eccentric, with Charley himself being one of the most talked about men in television history. Production studios became accustomed to seeing Douglass shuttling from studio to studio to mix in his manufactured laughs during post-production. When it came time to "lay in the laughs" onto an episode's soundtrack, the producer would literally direct Douglass where and when to insert the type of laugh requested. Inevitably, arguments arose between Douglass and the producer, but in the end, the producer always won.
After taking his directive, Douglass would then go to work at creating the audience, out of sight from the producer or anyone else present at the studio. Very few in the industry ever witnessed Douglass using his mysterious "laff box", and he was notoriously secretive about his work.
The one-of-a-kind device was tightly secured with padlocks, stood more than two feet tall, and operated like an organ, with a keyboard to select the style, gender and age of the laugh as well as a foot pedal to time the length of the reaction. Inside the padlocked concoction were an endless array of recorded chuckles, yocks, and belly laughs. Exactly 320 laughs on 32 tape loops, 10 to a loop. Each loop contained 10 individual audience laughs spliced end-to-end, whirling around simultaneously waiting to be cued up. Astute listeners will notice that the bulk of the chuckles always laughed in the same order repeatedly. Experts began to watch certain sitcoms and knew exactly which recurrent guffaws were next, even if they were watching an episode for the first time. Frequently, Douglass would combine different laughs, either long or short in length. Attentive viewers could spot when he decided to mix laughers together to give the effect of a more diverse audience.
Controversy and bucking the trend in America
The practice of simulating an audience reaction was controversial from the very beginning. A silent minority of producers despised the very idea of a prerecorded audience reaction; however, leading industry experts reasoned that laugh tracks were a necessary evil in prime time television: without the canned laughter, a show was doomed to fail. It was believed that the absence of the guffaws meant American viewers could not tell if the particular show was indeed a comedy. Inventor Douglass was well aware that his "laff box" was maligned by critics and actors, but also knew that the utilization of a laugh track became standard practice and as a result, a commodity in the industry. Some, however, tried to forgo the laugh track entirely:
- Former child star Jackie Cooper believed that the laugh track was false. Cooper's television show Hennesey (CBS, 1959-62) was cancelled in 1962 after a three-season run. For its first two seasons, the show used only a mild laugh track (known as a "titter" track); by the third and final season, the chuckles were eliminated completely and, as a result, so was Hennesey. Cooper later commented that "we're manufacturing a reaction to our own creation, yet we'll never know if people out there are really laughing." Cooper concluded by saying, "It's a put-on all the time."
- In September 1964, a comedy/drama called Kentucky Jones (NBC, 1964-65), starring Dennis Weaver, tried to get away with no laughs, simulated or live. After only five episodes and slumping ratings, Douglass was recruited to add the laugh track, but the damage had been done. Kentucky Jones was cancelled by the following April.
- Ross Bagdasarian, creator of the Alvin and the Chipmunks franchise, outright refused to utilize a laugh track when production began on The Alvin Show (CBS, 1961-62) in 1961. Bagdasarian's reasoning was that if the show was funny, the viewers would laugh without being prompted. The Alvin Show was cancelled after a single season.
- Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz refused to employ a laugh track during the production of the holiday favorite A Charlie Brown Christmas (CBS, 1965). Like Bagdasarian, Schulz maintained that the audience should be able to enjoy the show at their own pace, without being cued when to laugh. (CBS did create a version of the show with the laugh track added, just in case Schulz changed his mind. This version remains unavailable.) When CBS executives saw the final product, they were horrified and believed the special would be a flop. When the show first aired on December 9, 1965, it was a surprise critical and commercial hit.
- The popular sitcom The Monkees (NBC, 1966-68) featured a laugh track throughout its first season and several episodes of the second. Midway through Season 2, the Monkees themselves insisted the show eliminate the laugh track, believing their viewers were intelligent enough to know where the jokes were. NBC, already annoyed by the manufactured rock group wanting too much control over their show, cancelled The Monkees after Season 2 concluded, citing the non-existant laugh track as a major factor.
- Bill Cosby's first situation comedy, The Bill Cosby Show (NBC, 1969-71) was also produced without a laugh track at the insistence of Cosby. He has stated that his opposition to NBC's desire to add a laugh track led to the show's cancellation after only two seasons.
- Larry Gelbart, creator of the TV series M*A*S*H (CBS, 1972-83), initially wanted the show to air entirely without a laugh track ("Just like the actual Korean War", he remarked dryly). However, CBS rejected the idea. Eventually a compromise was reached, and the producers of the series were not required to include a laugh track on operating room scenes on the show. As a result few scenes in the operating room contain canned laughter. Certain episodes omitted the laugh track completely, as did some international and syndicated airings of the show; the DVD releases, meanwhile, give the viewer a choice of laughing or non-laughing soundtracks.
- Sports Night (ABC, 1998-2000) premiered with a laugh track, against the wishes of show creator Aaron Sorkin, but the laugh track became more subtle as the season progressed and was completely removed at the start of the second season. In some cases a laugh track was needed to maintain continuity, as portions of each episode were filmed in front of a live audience, the remainder being filmed without an audience present.
Hanna-Barbera and Rankin/Bass make their own
Hanna-Barbera opted not to pay for Charley Douglass' services at the dawn of the 1970s. Hits like Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! and Josie and the Pussycats employed a laugh track, but Hanna-Barbera looked for any chance to cut costs. As a result, instead of utilizing a full laugh track, a sound engineer at the Hanna-Barbera studios isolated approximately half a dozen canned chuckles from Douglass' vast library. Mixed with an almost tinny, metallic sound to it, there were two or three mild laughs, plus one or two uncontrollable belly-laughs (one contains a very audible woman cackling at the tail end). This "limited" laugh track did not contain any looping tapes with 10 assorted laughs per tape, no endless variety of chuckles, no titter track, and no realism. When audience reaction was needed, the limited laughs were dubbed repeatedly. On occasion, two or three of the chuckles were combined to give the effect that there was more diversity to the already limited laugh track.
Critics took note of the inferior sounding laugh track permeating Hanna-Barbera's Saturday morning fare. The same prerecorded laugh can be heard after nearly every punchline, which does not go unnoticed by the astute viewer. The fact that the treble was mixed far too high for the soundtrack it accompanies only draws attention to the falsity of the practice. Several shows that are victim of the abridged laugh track are The New Scooby-Doo Movies, Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels, The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show, Dynomutt, Dog Wonder, Jabberjaw, Hong Kong Phooey, Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space, The Flintstone Comedy Hour and Help!... It's the Hair Bear Bunch!.
Animation studio Rankin/Bass also experimented with creating their own laugh track for The Jackson 5ive Saturday morning cartoon show. Like Hanna-Barbera, Rankin/Bass isolated several snippets of canned chuckles from Douglass' library, and inserted them onto the soundtrack. Unlike Hanna-Barbera, though, the chuckles were comprised of nothing but loud eruptions of laughter; mild jokes received unnatural bouts of laughter, while other times, the laughter would erupt mid-sentence. The poorly edited laugh track emphasized the artificial nature of canned laughter twice as much as Hanna-Barbera's version; as a result, Rankin/Bass ceased using laugh tracks after The Jackson 5ive mishap.
1970s - live TV makes a comeback
Though the use of canned laughter reached its peak in the 1960s, the trend began to reverse with the 1971 debut of All in the Family (CBS, 1971-79). As proclaimed over the closing credits each week ("All in the Family was recorded on tape before a live audience." and later "All in the Family was played to a studio audience for live responses.") the sitcom relied upon live, unprompted audience responses. On rare occasions, the studio audience laughter was sweetened with canned laughter.
Jack Klugman and Tony Randall expressed displeasure during the first season of The Odd Couple (ABC, 1970-75), which utilized a laugh track without a live audience. Theatre veteran Randall, in particular, resented the usage of the laugh track, and wanted to perform in front of a live audience. ABC relented and by the second season, The Odd Couple was filmed with three cameras (vs. a single camera the previous season) and performed like a stage play in front of a studio audience. Douglass' "laff box", however, was used in post-production to sweeten and smooth out the live reactions.
The highly popular Happy Days (ABC, 1974-84) mirrored The Odd Couple scenario. Its first two seasons utilized only a laugh track, and by third season, shifted over to a live audience with sweetening done in post-production.
Usage in America, post-1980
Laugh-track-free production has been gaining ground in the US since the early 1990s. The Larry Sanders Show won critical praise for not including a laugh track. Such shows are often produced in the more expensive single camera style usually reserved for one-hour drama, using on-location shooting and high production values, as opposed to the standard multi-camera sitcom sound stage. Recent live action North American sitcoms that adopted this style include Arrested Development, Malcolm in the Middle, Curb Your Enthusiasm, My Name Is Earl, The Bernie Mac Show, The Office, Trailer Park Boys, Scrubs, 30 Rock, Samantha Who?, Flight of the Conchords, My Boys, Testees and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Alan Spencer's Sledge Hammer! aired with a laugh track for the first 12 episodes including the pilot, but Spencer was not impressed by ABC editing the episodes. Later on, the video releases had all the laugh tracks removed.
Usage in the United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom prior to the 2000s most sitcoms were taped before live audiences to provide natural laughter. Other comedies, such as the The Royle Family and The Office which are presented in the mode of cinema verite rather than in the format of a traditional sitcom, do not feature any audience laughter.
The League of Gentlemen was originally broadcast with a laughter track, but after the first two series this was dropped. The pilot episode of the satirical series Spitting Image was also broadcast with a laughter track. This idea was quickly dropped as it was felt that the series worked better without one. Some later editions, in 1992 (Election Special) and 1993 (two episodes) did use a studio audience, and therefore a laughter track, as the format of these editions included a spoof Question Time.
Additionally, some programs have been shown to a live audience, though they were not filmed live. Many scenes of the BBC's Last of the Summer Wine are filmed outdoors but the show's producers, while confirming that the show is filmed without an audience, point out that that the laughter is not "manufactured" but instead is a recording of the genuine response of a studio audience to whom the completed episode is shown. This is a technique which is frequently used for programmes that feature a lot of location filming (for which an audience could obviously not be present) or which involve a lot of post-production effects work. A prime example of this is Red Dwarf; the first six series were shot partly in front of a live audience and, due to special effects scenes, filmed but shown to the audience later. This caused a lot of problems, so Series 7 was filmed without an audience but was shown to one to get 'live' laughter. Series 8 saw the return of the live audience. The shows return, Red Dwarf: Back To Earth will not be using a laugh track though.
Usage in Canada
Although some contemporary Canadian sitcoms are laugh track-free (e.g., The Newsroom, Corner Gas, Little Mosque on the Prairie, Billable Hours etc.), many still rely on laugh tracks in some form. Air Farce and The Red Green Show both tape in front of a live audience, and in the latter's case the audience itself is incorporated into the format of the program (Red Green is a show about a show).
Usage in Asia
In parts of East Asia, laugh tracks are often loud and exaggerated in comedy-variety shows despite them being filmed with small live audiences. The Hong Kong game show Minutes to Fame is one of the recognizable shows that uses a large number of laugh tracks, which sometimes cover up the singing or dialogue.
Support
Executive producer for Sid and Marty Krofft, Si Rose, convinced the Kroffts to use laugh tracks on their puppet shows such as H.R. Pufnstuf, The Bugaloos, Lidsville, and others. In a recent interview, he states "The laugh track was a big debate, they (the Kroffts) said they didn't want to do it, but with my experience with night-timers, night-time started using laugh tracks, and it becomes a staple, because the viewer watches the program and there's a big laugh every time because of the laugh track, and then when you see a show that's funny and there's no laugh because of no laugh track, it becomes a handicap, so I convinced them of that. Good or bad.". Later in another interview, Marty Krofft confirmed that he and Sid were initially reluctant to use a laugh track on their shows, but agreed that it was a necessity.
In a 2007 DVD interview, Filmation producer/founder Lou Scheimer praised the laugh track for its usage on The Archie Show. "Why a laugh track?" Scheimer asked. "Because you feel that you are watching the program with a group of people instead of being alone." Scheimer confirmed that The Archie Show was the first Saturday morning cartoon to utilize a laugh track.
Popular culture
A well-known gag often used in satirical comedy is the use of a laughter track which cuts off unnaturally abruptly after each burst of laughter or applause, emphasizing its artificial nature and therefore its implied insincerity. The sound of laughter has even been portrayed as emerging from a can marked 'Canned Laughter' as if it were a product. The sound emerges whenever the can is opened.
In some cases, laugh tracks are used as a source of humor in themselves. For example, the video game Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon features a laugh track after certain lines of text dialog.
See also
External links
- - An Interview with Ben Glenn II, Television Historian
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